In the Heritage of Yadkin Co.,
article #654 The Long Family; and Heritage of Catawba
Co., article #484 The Long Family, information is
given which is also repeated on the internet and contain some
discrepancies. The current information supplied here could be
of benefit to others who may be tracing this same line in the
counties addressed. I would welcome any discussion which could
further enhance the research.

1) Anthony Long is identified
in these articles as their oldest known ancestor. We have found
no written historical record to confirm that his legal name was
Anthony. It was probably derived from the personal
recollection of a family member, instead of actual documentation.
All of the records found in Prince George Co., MD. refer to Thomas
Long as the father of the 5 sons and the husband of (1) Mary
______, then (2) Mary Holly/Hallie. Perhaps Anthony
was an additional part of his name, or a nickname, but we dont
know. We have found a record of the birth of a Thomas Long b.
1/15/1764 in Prince Georges Co., MD. which may be this individual.

2) Thomas Long married (1) Mary
and had two sons : James Thomas Long b. 4/4/1785 and Anthony
Long b. ca 1786. Orphans Court record in Maryland refer
to Mary as his first wife and the mother of these
two boys. (This may be the marriage recorded for Thomas Long
/Mary Conner on 9/5/1779 in Prince Georges Co., MD.)

3) Thomas Long married (2) Mary
Holly on 7/30/1791 in Port Tobacco, Charles Co., MD. and had
three sons: John Long b. 11/15/1791, William b. 12/28/1792, and
Jonathon b. 4/8/1794.

4) Thomas Long died 9/1/1795
in Prince Georges Co., MD. Mary Holly Long then married Hanson
Stone Athey/Athon on 4/9/1798 and migrated in 1799 to Lincoln
Co., then Yadkin Co., N.C. However, before leaving Maryland the
new couple elected to surrender the two step-sons, James Thomas
Long and Anthony Long, to the guardianship of the boys
uncle, Jonathon Long (b. ca 1765) of Lincoln Co., N.C. The court
document is signed by Hanson (X) Athey and Jonathon (X) Long.

This latter fact is confirmed
by Orphans Court records in Maryland, as well as court
records in Lincoln Co., N.C. In addition, a manuscript Record
of the Day Family, by W. A. Day records that Lewis Day
, a tailor by trade, came to Sherrills Ford, N.C. in 1799.
Lewis first work after arriving ...was to make a
suite of Broadcloth clothes for Jonathon Long to wear to Maryland
after his people. The late William Long... (1792-1884)
...who died at an advanced age many years ago, was one
of the number being a boy seven years of age...

5) Anthony Long b. ca 1788 ,
one of these 5 boys, was raised in Lincoln Co. from 1800 when
he was about 12 yrs old. The record of marriage with Catherine
Sherrill (b. 1778) is lacking in confirmation of an actual link
to these same Long boys, but seems more than coincidence. Three
daughters of Elisha Sherrill/Leah Litten married men named Long.
The names and dates coincide. The other two Sherrill sisters
marriages can definitely be tied to this Long family under discussion.
I am convinced that Anthony was one of these brothers, although
we have not yet succeeded in locating further evidence about
this part of the family.

6) William Long (b. 1792) has
been shown as married (1) to Mary Polly Welch. I
believe this to be incorrect. Correspondence with Welch family
descendants indicates that this Mary Welch was married to a William
Long , son of George Long and Ann Davis, and that she died 8/21/1856
in Scott Co., IL.

I am interested in pursuing the
identity of Thomas Long. I believe that there were two Thomas
Longs, probably one the son of the other, at the time and that
the identities have become confused. The original Thomas Long
was most likely Thomas Laing (born Nov, 1725, in Clatt, Aberdeenshire,
Scotland), a Jacobite that was sentenced to exile in the Americas
in 1746 and according to our family legends, was indentured as
a carpenter repairing ships on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.
Records are sketchy at the time. The English seem to have translated
his name from the Scottish Laing to Long and this seems to have
persisted until his sons or grandsons, William, Robert, David,
Cornelious, Charles, and James reestablished themselves as Laings.
The six men turned up in the area of the Scottish settlement
of Darien about 1800 and gave their place of birth as North Carolina.
We have examined all other possibilities, and this is the best
possibility. James Laing was given as James the younger. Dates
of birth in North Carolina are William 1775, Robert 1778, David
1785, Cornelious 1787, Charles 1789, and James the younger 1789.
The fact that both Charles and James were born in the same year
perhaps indicates a tightly knit extended family although the
records state that they were brothers.

Additional evidence of the Laings
having been established in Marylad are as follows:

By 1810, records seem to indicate
that this branch of Laings had left Maryland for there are no
furhter records for them there. Indeed, they seem to have disappeared
from the country. We believe that this indicates that they had
moved elsewhere and were in the records under Long or Lang, hence
our search.

Please let me know if you think
that your Thomas Long might be our Thomas Laing.